[Met Performance] CID:197520



La Bohème
Metropolitan Opera House, Sat, March 14, 1964 Matinee Broadcast
Broadcast Matinee Broadcast





La Bohème (620)
Giacomo Puccini | Luigi Illica/Giuseppe Giacosa
Mimì
Renata Tebaldi

Rodolfo
Sándor Kónya

Musetta
Laurel Hurley

Marcello
Frank Guarrera

Schaunard
Clifford Harvuot

Colline
Jerome Hines

Benoit
Fernando Corena

Alcindoro
Lorenzo Alvary

Parpignol
Emil Filip

Sergeant
Lloyd Strang

Officer
Edward Ghazal


Conductor
Fausto Cleva





Rebroadcast on Sirius Metropolitan Opera Radio

Review 1:

Review of Peter Davis in Musical America

With scores of her approving fans on hand to greet her, Renata Tebaldi made her first appearance of the season in "La Bohème" on March 14. The soprano was in fine voice after the recent illness that forced her to cancel several performances of last year. Her harsh, metallic upper register is still very much present, as well as an unfortunate tendency to flat notes above G, but these drawbacks did not obscure the definite plus values of her singing. Tebaldi has always been a mistress of the small moment, which makes her, vocally at any rate, particularly suited to the intimate pathos of Mimi's character. There were many exquisite moments in her performance, one of which was the magical transition in her first act aria at the words "Ma quando vien lo sgelo." I don't believe I have ever heard a soprano make this sound quite so quietly ecstatic. Her performance was studded with little nuances of this sort, not the least of which was her beautiful and sensitively gauged death scene.

Sandor Konya truly excelled in his first Metropolitan Rodolfo, showing an easy command of the Puccini idiom. His voice may not ring as brilliantly as some in this role, but the sound was always ingratiating, making up in style what he lacked in brio. The rest of the cast was familiar: Laurel Hurley (Musetta), Frank Guarerra (Marcello), Jerome Hines (Colline), Clifford Harvout (Schaunard), Fernando Corena (Benoit) and Lorenzo Alvary (Alcindoro), with Fausto Cleva in the pit.?



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